Mar
19
Nationalism
March 19, 2018 | Leave a Comment
We discussed how the record store was saturated with the politics of race. There was a racial line set up by commerce and enforced by culture. I believe that fundamentally music is still delineated by race and what is appropriate for each race to listen to. With a racially charged culture right now, people are sensitive to what music genres they are listening to. Yet, we see more and more cultural mixing as different races come into the genres that are typical for African-Americans.
Commerce reinforced segregation while simultaneously breaking it down. The United States is famous for putting commerce ahead of the needs of individual private lives. Take for instance the literary works of Zora Neale Hurston and musical prowess of Marian Anderson and how they were able to write and perform for white audiences even when segregation had not even been addressed much less been dealt with in the United States.
American nationalism is thin and can be said to be fragile. Of course, the US nationalism is thin. The citizens of the US hide behind the bill of rights and commandments to degrade and demean immigrants of other cultures. Yet, when it is convenient we are the melting pot of opportunity that many should be grateful for. Travel bans and fixing the process in which families can help each other get visas is now a problem. Within these visa stipulations, we are focusing on the admittance of immigrants that have advanced degrees and can positively contribute to the US. These decisions are coming full circle again and goes back to the idea of commerce and how fragile our nationalism really is. We can be bought and at the end of the day if it gels well with the ideals of what Americans believe to be their self -constructed opinion of nationalism…it is accepted. Multiculturalism in the US can sometimes be seen as a farce and just a way for a nation to cover up that its fragile nationality is a means to justify inherently racist and biased tendencies.
The west is often the site of racial mixing because it was the frontier. People going to the frontier were people crossing boundaries and re-inventing themselves. The frontier was multi-cultural but was re-imagined as all white. What is American? I don’t believe that we know what it means to be an American anymore. It’s people existing in spaces afraid and unafraid to be their true selves. To be an American is to be regressive and denounce progressive ideas. The idea of multiculturalism is progressive and racial mixing is something that many feel they need to hide because it is seen as something to be ashamed of. We haven’t really progressed in our understanding of racial equality and the barriers that children or families may face in being multicultural. Look at how Prince Harry is going to marry a mixed race woman, Meghan Markle. At the same time, many are still resisting and degrading her as a human being because of her ancestry and her life choices. The color of her skin is not deemed worthy of a title or the prestige that comes with being married to nobility. Skin and race continues to drive transactional ideals. The frontier had to be reimagined as white because without that we couldn’t claim the success of the West. Credit is never given where it should be due. We continue to steal and profit from the ideas of immigrants and their multicultural heritage and claim and feign ignorance when whites are called to answer for their blatant cultural appropriation. The face of America is not what we portray. The face of America is a white man standing on a ground that was built by blood, sweat and tears of voluntary and involuntary immigrants. There are people crossing frontiers every day. Yet, we can never give the credit because ingenuity can only be novel to cis males and a heteronormative narrative.
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